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Kaylee Jackson On quest for National Grand Slam
The National Grand Slam was started by a group of hunters back many years ago. There’s 28 BDs in the National Grand Slam and they range all over North America. There’s the Coues deer, which is down in the southern part of Arizona and into Mexico. That is one of the animals also with that. And 28 and you do all 28 of them and you are honored by your fellow hunters with a plaque, and certificate, and things like that, and different things. Sponsorship from people, being able to take all of the animals. Kaylee Jackson on quest for National Grand Slam
The hardest one of course would be a grizzly bear because it does cost you a lot to grizzly hunt. They’re very protective of their grizzlies in Canada, the Yukon, into the Alaska area. So to me, that’s the hardest animal to be able to take.
The hunting tradition…
The hunting tradition…I had one of the best mentors in the world, which is my grandfather. He just made sure that I could do this alone. Because he knew there would be a time that he wasn’t going to be around and that I may not have a guide — I don’t have a guide of course for whitetail — but a guide or a man going with me, so he had to make sure I could do everything on my own. Field dressing, bringing it back to the vehicle, being able to load it up, being able to bring it home and dressing it myself. So he was a really great mentor for me and I was very proud to have been able to hunt with him all those years.
Let’s talk a little bit about the hunting tradition and what he instilled in you that we’re seeing the benefits of it today.
KayLee: The thing about my grandfather was he never had anything bad to say about anybody. Even if he didn’t like you, he didn’t say anything bad about you. So the one thing he instilled in me was to let people, if they want to talk, then that’s okay. That’s what they’re going to do. It doesn’t matter what you do, or how good you are, or how bad you are, they’re going to still talk about you.
So the one thing that I try to reiterate with the kids nowadays is find something nice to say about somebody, be it in hunting or fishing, and make sure that person knows that, make sure people know that about that person. You may not like them, but say it about them.
So my thing is now the thing is not with anti-hunters that we have to come up against most of the time. It’s with other hunters or other anglers, be it jealousy, be it just pure hate. I don’t know what it is. I can’t explain that. But he instilled in me to make sure that you’ve always got something nice to say about somebody.
And that goes with the hunting and fishing industry. Make sure you’ve always got something nice to say about somebody. It doesn’t matter.
the better relationships you’re going to build.
Bruce: And listeners, take that to note, because sometimes we’re our worst enemy. Somebody puts up a doe and they go, “Why did you shoot that?” Or a small buck, whatever, and we take a second to say, “Hey, congrats!” But we don’t. Unfortunately, when I was younger I sorta kinda did that too. We didn’t have social media, but we would be in the middle of town going, “Oh, you could have done better on that one.” And I wasn’t positive. The people look at you and go, “Well, where’s yours?” Or whatever. It’s something you’ve got to learn. And the sooner you do that, the better relationships you’re going to build. Right, KayLee?
KayLee: You’re exactly right. That will go into if you… I see a lot of children now hunting, a lot more hunting than back when I was growing up. To see grown men and women just really disrespect a child. Respect is earned both ways. And you know that, Bruce. But disrespect a child, that they may say, “Well, maybe I’m not good at this so I’m not going to do this anymore.”
There may come a time that they need to feed themselves. How are they going to do that? There may come a time that that is something that they want to try, but they have a recollection of you saying something bad about a deer that they killed. They’re not going to be perfect. Nobody’s perfect, so just try to find the best aspect of what they do, and give them a little praise for it, and go on about your business.
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